The advance of technology into the digital age has transformed nearly every facet of our lives. For the consumer, perhaps nothing represents this shift better than entertainment media. We have progressed from analog audio recordings and playback devices, such as a record player and eighttrack cassettes, to digital recordings and playback devices, such as compact disc players. In photography, digital cameras and digital video recorders are now commonplace.
However, with these changes come new problems and new opportunities. For example, a consumer can have digital photos stored on a memory card processed the same way that a roll of film was previously processed at a film processing center. The consumer delivers the memory card to the photo processing center by hand or by mail, and then waits for the processing center to produce the requested photos. While taking the pictures is more convenient, the processing end of the pathway is still slow and requires much human involvement. A consumer also could purchase digital music by buying a compact disc or purchasing music on the internet for downloading onto a memory device such as computer hard drive. However, each of these steps typically requires the interaction of a personal computer.
Accordingly, although the digital age has brought some improvement in the quality of music and photography, most consumers are still burdened with using a personal computer and multiple accessory devices for photo processing of image data from a digital camera and/or downloading digital music files.